Bloodrayne, although his excuse was that he always wanted to play a vampire and no one else offered a vampire role. So its a mistake on his part, i'd expect more sense from him.

Although LoS was aghast, the suggestion a few pages back of David Bowie for Thanduril (sp?) was a good one for me. Bowie is shaping up as an actor these days, rather than being his usual over-the-top self from the 80s.

Bloodrayne, although his excuse was that he always wanted to play a vampire and no one else offered a vampire role. So its a mistake on his part, i'd expect more sense from him.

Although LoS was aghast, the suggestion a few pages back of David Bowie for Thanduril (sp?) was a good one for me. Bowie is shaping up as an actor these days, rather than being his usual over-the-top self from the 80s.

Click to expand...

It seems I am aghast at things rather a lot....

I still maintain that David Bowie would be disastrous.

Although I suppose Patrick Stewart wouldn't be the end of the world.... certainly better than Sean Connery....

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Guillermo del Toro has officially signed on to direct the New Line/MGM's The Hobbit and its sequel, reports Variety.

The widely expected announcement came Thursday afternoon jointly from executive producers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, New Line president Toby Emmerich, and Mary Parent, newly named chief of MGM's Worldwide Motion Picture Group.

Del Toro's moving to New Zealand for the next four years to work with Jackson and his Wingnut and Weta production teams. He'll direct the two films back to back, with the sequel dealing with the 60-year period between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, the first of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.

New Line is overseeing development and will manage production. Both films are being co-produced and co-financed by New Line Cinema and MGM, with Warner Bros. distributing domestically and MGM handling international.

Del Toro won't leave for New Zealand immediately as he's still in post-production on Universal's "Hellboy II," due out in July.

The official signing of Del Toro comes four months after New Line settled a lawsuit with Jackson over "The Lord of the Rings" and announced that it had agreed with MGM to turn J.R.R. Tolkien's "Hobbit" into two live-action films.

The studios didn't give a start date on production and don't yet have a script. Though no screenplay deal's been set, it's expected that the LOTR scripting team of Jackson, Walsh and Philippa Boyens will collaborate with Del Toro.

With Del Toro blocking out four years for the project, it's likely that the studios are aiming at starting shooting next year and releasing the films in late 2011 and 2012.

Jackson's WETA stages, post-production and visual effects facilities -- built for "The Lord of the Rings" -- will be used for both films. And New Zealand will again be the site of Middle-earth, with the story centering on Bilbo Baggins taking the Ring of Power from Gollum.

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Director Guillermo del Toro mentioned a few days ago that he had had a meeting with Sir Ian McKellen and Andy Serkis for them to reprise their roles in The Hobbit and its sequel as Gandalf and Gollum/Smeagol, respectively. Now we get to hear McKellen's side.

"Yes, it's true," McKellen told Empire Online at the UK Speed Racer premiere. "I spoke to Guillermo in the very room that Peter Jackson offered me the part and he confirmed that I would be reprising the role. Obviously, it's not a part that you turn down, I loved playing Gandalf."

He added that "Guillermo will be getting around to starting the script in about six weeks when he's finished filming Hellboy II."

chud.com has an interview woth PJ and Del Toro about the upcoming movies. In it they say all roles in The hobbit will be offered to the cast from LOTR (excepting possibly Ian Holm).

The second film is almost certainly from the Appendices and will be written based on who is interested in being in the film. Gandalf's part will not be 'written up' so the gaps where Gandalf leaves the dwarves for periods will stay intact. Orcs and Wargs will be revised, the tone will be different to reflect the lighter tone of the book but will stay based in the reality of the LOTR movies.

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Director Guillermo del Toro says they won't start the casting process until they've finished writing: "Literally, like every week, what you discover writing the two movies, writing the two stories, it changes. So, every week there's a discovery, and anything we say this week would be contradicted next week. Certainly that would be true in casting. Why create hopes or why create expectations if down the line you're going to go, 'You know what? That was not a good idea.'"

Regarding the creatures, he says there are so many more to be explored in "The Hobbit" films that were not explored in "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. "We want to do a muscle-driven, radio-controlled suits for a couple of things. I already started that with Wink in 'Hellboy II.' Wink was pushed as far as we could within the time limits and the budget limits of the movie and we're going to take what we learned and apply it.

"Smaug is the creature in 'The Hobbit.' The way Tolkien wrote it, already, is magnificent. It's already a fantastic character. So, obviously, dragons, you ask every person what their best favorite dragon is, they will give you a different answer. In my mind, what we're going to attempt on the design of this creature and the creation of this creature needs to push the envelope beyond anything you've ever seen on that kind of creature.

"There is some stuff that has been done with dragons that I find... there are very few landmarks created for me. One of the best and one of the strongest landmarks that almost nobody can overcome is 'Dragonslayer.' The design of the Vermithrax Pejorative is perhaps one of the most perfect creature designs ever made. So, what you have to be careful is not to try to be distinctive just to be distinctive, but Smaug has certain characteristics that make him unique already. I am bursting at the seams about spilling the beans, but I won't because I would be shot."